The present invention relates to telescoping slide assemblies, and particularly to a slide assembly system having at least two telescoping slide members. More particularly, the present invention relates to a pair of spaced-apart telescoping slide assemblies which are adapted to be releasably coupled to a piece of equipment, known as a chassis, which is positioned to lie therebetween.
Installation of a piece of electronic, console equipment or other hardware unit on a telescoping slide assembly mounted in an enclosure or hardware cabinet is accomplished using various installation tools and perhaps two or more technicians. Other types of equipment are also mounted on telescoping slide assemblies using various connectors and tools.
A chassis (such as a server) usually includes three mounting posts coupled to a left side wall of the chassis and three or more mounting posts coupled to a right side wall of the chassis. Each mounting post includes an anchor coupled to the chassis side wall and a throat sized to move through the slot to reach the installed position.
A pair of telescoping slide assemblies are mounted in a computer hardware cabinet and positioned to lie in side-by-side spaced-apart parallel relation so that the chassis will lie between the mounting slide element in each of the two telescoping slide assemblies. The three mounting posts on the left side wall of the chassis can be moved into three complementary slots formed in the mounting slide element of the left-side telescoping slide member while simultaneously the three mounting posts on the right side wall of the chassis are being moved into three complementary slots formed in the mounting slide element of the right-side telescoping slide assembly.
There are numerous prior art slide rail designs for mounting telecommunications equipment. A major disadvantage of these prior slide rail assemblies is that they have been designed through a trial and error process rather than focus on engineering principles. The prior art designs fail to minimize friction, balance momentum and minimize pull tension. Several different methods have been attempted to overcome the friction of the early prior art design, namely, ball bearings and specialized coatings. Unfortunately, the ball bearing design actually increases the friction between the rails. The coated rails also fail to overcome the high friction design. This is especially apparent after the coatings begin to wear and allow for metal-on-metal contact.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved slide rail assembly that minimizes friction between the sliding rails, balances momentum and minimizes pull tension and which also includes improved locking and insertion designs.
Features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.